Inmate: Threat to kill Obama was desperate bid for medical care

If Stephen Espalin wanted some "Obamacare," he went about getting it the wrong way.

Espalin, 57, allegedly told a judge last week that he only threatened to assassinate President Obama, his family and their dog, Bo, because the homeless man needed medical treatment for chest pains but was being kicked out of a Boca Raton hospital for giving a false name and lying about having health insurance, reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Espalin previously served 18 months in federal prison for threatening to kill former President George W. Bush in 2001, court records show.

Espalin reportedly told Boca Raton cops and U.S. Secret Service agents he had sent a heat-activated bomb to the president at the White House -- but there was no evidence any such explosive device was sent, authorities said.

Just last December another man, also seeking medical care, killed a man to get some help.

John Stabile used a butcher knife to slay a homeless man in Deerfield Beach that he did not know when a mental health counselor recommended against admitting the 23-year-old man for treatment. Stabile would later tell the cops he would kill to get the help he needed, according to the news report.